Cumbria needs its own Nessie

Published 2 May 2008

NESSITERAS Rhombopteryx first hit the headlines on this day in 1933. Alex Campbell wrote about it in that day’s issue of the Inverness Courier.

Imagine queuing to light your fag at the Olympic flame; they did in 1948!

Published 24 April 2008

Order of the bath not received well by sceptical West Cumbrian colliers

Published 17 April 2008

NAKED he was, stood on his front doorstep, his taut frame caked with sweat and coal-dust.

Our job is to provide something to eat - but not the teeth to eat with

Published 10 April 2008

A MIXED ward was the problem for the Cockermouth Guardians back in 1925.

Post office fight going on for years

Published 5 April 2008

“THIS Federation brings to the notice of the Postmaster General the serious hardship now caused by the absence of adequate post office services in rural districts, and considers that the refusal of the Government to grant reasonable pay and facilities to rural PO staff is largely responsible, and asks for this whole matter to be promptly reconsidered.”

Don't mention the number 13

Published 27 March 2008

WHY MAKE patients on the operating table count after being given anaesthetic?

Moral panic nothing new

Published 22 March 2008

THEY were dead drunk, careering down the street “singing the most utter filth imaginable.”

Logistics headache when Lord George’s Big Top came to town

Published 22 March 2008

SEND in the clowns! The circus is coming.

Fossicking is never boring, but the past takes up so much time

Published 22 March 2008

BORED? Never! It’s what I tell those folk who, from time to time, wonder if I ever get bored with fossicking in the past.

Getting ready for teaching the new dances for the new jazz age

Published 22 March 2008

JAZZ was born this day in 1917. That’s when the world’s first jazz record was released – and the world of music was never the same again.

Socialism and religion

Published 22 March 2008

SOCIALISM, religion and cookery were all mixed together in June 1934, when Workington Band Of Hope held a garden party in the grounds of Workington’s Trades Hall.

No title

Published 13 March 2008

MARY Anne Finley died in 1886. For the last few days of her life she’d been nursed by her 31-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Berry.

The Victorians were never bored - they simply didn’t have the time

Published 4 March 2008

BORED! Nothing to do. Nowhere to go. Just how many times have I heard these words?